Heartbreak: Chinese government none too happy with Romney’s agenda

posted at 7:01 pm on September 1, 2012 by Erika Johnsen

Wait, so the state-controlled media of a self-proclaimed communist nation that brutally oppresses its people and continuously flouts the rules of free-trade and international cooperation, isn’t endorsing Romney for president? I think I can feel my heart breaking.

China’s official news agency on Wednesday criticised what it called a “blame-China game” by US presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a day after he formally secured the Republican nomination. …

“While it is convenient for US politicians to hammer China and blame China for their own problems, they should be fully aware that their words and deeds are poisoning the general atmosphere of US-China relations,” it said. …

He has pledged to brand China a “currency manipulator” on his first day in office, a move that could enable retaliatory sanctions and that the Obama administration declined to take in May. …

Obama has issued tamer criticisms of the Asian giant, announcing during a campaign stop last month that his government had filed a complaint against it with the World Trade Organization over a tariff on American automobiles.

Oh, give me a break — blame, shmame. The Chinese ruling elites are overly-sensitive about anyone pointing out their very obvious, glaring flaws and daring to not be bullied by their endless effronteries, because they have to feed their own repressed populace with a constant stream of jingoistic waffle to keep their precarious governing situation locked down.

I have long maintained that the rise of a more wealthy China is in no way a necessarily scary prospect. The beautiful thing about prosperity is that there’s no finite supply of it that we need to fight over — it just keeps on growing, and there’s absolutely no reason that every single person on the planet couldn’t enjoy the same level of material comfort that we by and large enjoy in the western world. Free trade is not a zero-sum game, everybody benefits, and a more productive, successful, competitive China would only help to heighten worldwide prosperity and innovation.

China has long since realized that they would indeed like to be an economic superpower, and if they’re ever to have even the slightest hope of getting on our economic level (right now, they aren’t even close), they’re going to be forced to implement political reforms, too. Repressing your people’s freedom of speech and religion and shutting down their opportunities for upward mobility is no way to unleash their ingenuity and entrepreneurship, and a more democratic China would benefit all parties.

“We will welcome the emergence of a peaceful and prosperous China, and we will welcome even more the development of a democratic China,” the [RNC] draft platform reads. “Its rulers have discovered that economic freedom leads to national wealth. The next lesson is that political and religious freedom lead to national greatness. The exposure of the Chinese people to our way of lifecan be the greatest force for change in their country.

The problem is that, right now, China is still attempting to compete on a free-market level, without abiding by free-market rules. They’re not trying to make China more democratic, they’re trying to see how much they can accomplish by testing just how much the rest of the world will allow them to get away with: Intellectual piracy, currency manipulation, rampant corruption, mind-blowing fiscal failures, international perfidy, etcetera. But here’s the thing: It’s not working out too well for them.

The latest news from Beijing is indicative of Chinese weakness: a persistent slowdown of economic growth, a glut of unsold goods, rising bad bank loans, a bursting real estate bubble, and a vicious power struggle at the top, coupled with unending political scandals. Many factors that have powered China’s rise, such as the demographic dividend, disregard for the environment, supercheap labor, and virtually unlimited access to external markets, are either receding or disappearing. …

The current economic slowdown in Beijing is neither cyclical nor the result of weak external demand for Chinese goods. China’s economic ills are far more deeply rooted: an overbearing state squandering capital and squeezing out the private sector, systemic inefficiency and lack of innovation, a rapacious ruling elite interested solely in self-enrichment and the perpetuation of its privileges, a woefully underdeveloped financial sector, and mounting ecological and demographic pressures.

I’m rather of the opinion that China’s communist bubble is well on its way to popping almost regardless of what we do, but it’s still important to stand up to their continual bullying and let them know that we are not easy subjects for a run-around. It’s quite the sticky wicket, and I don’t pretend to know all the exact answers, but Romney highlighting their underhanded security dealings, their widespread human rights abuses, and their refusal to abide by free-trade rules aren’t a bad start — I know that communist regimes don’t usually like it when they don’t get their way and anybody in the wide world dares to challenge them, but tough beans.

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Additionally, what do people think the Chinese do with the US Dollars they get? Use as wall paper? The protectionists usually struggle when asked such a question.

brogers on September 2, 2012 at 7:53 AM

First of all, they don’t have a stack of dollar bills, it’s credit in the form of dollars…with that they can buy oil, wood, coffee, most any commodity…the reason why people struggle with that question is because it is so idiotic.

They’re not trying to make China more democratic, they’re trying to see how much they can accomplish by testing just how much the rest of the world will allow them to get away with: Intellectual piracy, currency manipulation, rampant corruption, mind-blowing fiscal failures, international perfidy, etcetera.

Right on point, as you usually are Erika, with the exception of “currency manipulation.” I do not think that China gains by it or that we are hurt by it. In fact, given the actions of Western central bankers, including dear old Uncle Ben, we are as guilty as anyone on this charge. I love Mitt, but I part with him on this point as well.

As for the rest, you nailed it. In particular the Chinese lack of respect for intellectual property is theft, pure and simple. It is long past time that we ceased to tolerate it with a wink.

China’s official news agency on Wednesday criticised what it called a “blame-China game” by US presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a day after he formally secured the Republican nomination. …

As opposed to the Chinese diplomatic MO, which is to travel to friendly foreign countries and blame America at each one for the ills of each one, and even unrelated ills of unrelated countries halfway across the world? China can afford to do that; they’re punching up. We, on the other hand, shouldn’t give them the time of day.

They’re not trying to make China more democratic, they’re trying to see how much they can accomplish by testing just how much the rest of the world will allow them to get away with: Intellectual piracy, currency manipulation, rampant corruption, mind-blowing fiscal failures, international perfidy, etcetera. But here’s the thing: It’s not working out too well for them.

Are you sure about that? They don’t abide by the rules the rest of us do, and they haven’t been taken to task for it, yet. The Chinese have a different view of stealing others’ work that has nothing to do with Communism and everything to do with a cutthroat business ethos that even extends to reproducing a rival’s product and selling it as your own. They don’t care about who invented the technology, they’re competing to see who can sell it better.

2. Heads up, greenies — you think that free enterprise is bad for the environment? Communism should be the Environmentalist Movement’s Public Enemy Number One!

“Greenies”? Is that all you can do? C’mon dude, let’s label them for what they really are – THE ENVIRO INDUSTRY.

I’d bet that the far-left Enviro Industry actually likes the rampant environmental destruction ongoing in India and communist China. After all, it fits in with their fascist worldview that all Mankind is a virus upon the face of the Earth and that Mankind must be wiped out to save Mother Gaeia. Of course, they truly believe that the only humans that should be allowed to live are themselves because they believe they know whats best for us and for the Earth.

If anyone is deserving of being turned into Soylent Green(tm) then it’s the self-righteous Enviro Industry. But you’d need a whole lot of flavoring & spices to cover up that eye-watering filthy-hippie stench.

And don’t forget that there are many within the Enviro Industry that see it as a vehicle for power over the proletariat. The EPA and the Dept of Energy and yes, even NOAA, are natural nesting grounds for these fumble-fingered feckless fascists. They produce more & more regulations to the point that complying with one regulation puts you in violation of another regulation, forcing you to squander funds to defend yourself and/or come into “compliance”.

Ayn Rand said it best in her book, Atlas Shrugged , when a character in her book, a Gummint bureaucrat, said “….The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals,one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. …..”